SVA alumnus Katie Yamasaki (MFA 2003 Illustration as Visual Essay) has just passed the halfway mark toward her goal of raising $16,000 to fund an empowering new project called “If Walls Could Talk.” Hosted on KickStarter (where pledges of as little as $1 can be made until January 11, 2012), Yamasaki’s creative initiative aims to connect incarcerated mothers at Rikers Island with their children by having them exchange messages expressing their feelings about being apart, which will then be translated into artwork.

“My hope is that by sending these images back and forth, an unusual dialogue will happen,” said Yamasaki. “A dialogue not only between mothers and children, but also with the greater communities that exist both inside of the jail where one mural will be painted and in the neighborhood where the other mural will be painted.”

For more information and to help Yamasaki launch her project, visit “If Walls Could Talk.” To learn about a similar project, watch the video below.